believe that useless expenditure is robbing the Nation". Patron of arts and sciences "I was born to devote myself to culture and sciences", the Emperor remarked in his private journal during 1862. He had always been eager to learn and found in books a refuge from the demands of his position. His ability to recall passages which he had read in the past was both notable and noted. Subjects which interested Pedro II were wide-ranging, including anthropology, history, geography, geology, medicine, law, religious studies, philosophy, painting, sculpture, theater, music, chemistry, physics, astronomy, poetry, technology, among others. By the end of his reign, there were three libraries in São Cristóvão palace containing more than 60,000 volumes. A passion for linguistics prompted him throughout his life to study new languages, and he was able to speak and write not only Portuguese but also Latin, French, German, English, Italian, Spanish, Greek, Arabic, Hebrew, Sanskrit, Chinese, Occitan and Tupi. He became the first Brazilian photographer when he acquired a daguerreotype camera in March 1840. He set up one laboratory in São Cristóvão devoted to photography and another to chemistry and physics. He also had an astronomical observatory constructed. The Emperor's erudition amazed Friedrich Nietzsche when both met. Victor Hugo told him: "Sire, you are a great citizen, you are the grandson of Marcus Aurelius", and Alexandre Herculano called him: "A Prince whom the general opinion holds as the foremost of his era because of his gifted mind, and due to the constant application of that gift to the sciences and culture." He was elected member of the Royal Society, the Russian Academy of Sciences, The Royal Academies for Science and the Arts of Belgium, the American Geographical Society, and the French Academy of Sciences, an honor previously granted to only two other heads of state: Peter the Great and Napoleon Bonaparte. Pedro II exchanged letters with scientists, philosophers, musicians and other intellectuals. Many of his correspondents became his friends, including Richard Wagner, Louis Pasteur, Louis Agassiz, John Greenleaf Whittier, Michel Eugène Chevreul, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Arthur de Gobineau, Frédéric Mistral, Alessandro Manzoni, Alexandre Herculano, Camilo Castelo Branco and James Cooley Fletcher. Pedro II early realized that he had an opportunity to put the knowledge he was accumulating to practical use for Brazil's benefit. Equating knowledge with progress, he considered education to be a vital component of good citizenship and himself provided an example of